[LEAPSECS] Standards of time zones -Brooks Harris

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

In message <52CC8C26.5090608 at edlmax.com>, Brooks Harris writes:


>I fully understand time zone specifications are fractured. My objective 

>is to determine what standards are most relevant currently, that is, 

>what standards may be considered "in force". And where none exist, to 

>state some sort of rules of "common use" or "common practice" without 

>referring to the impossibly large collection of local jurisdictions and 

>laws.


There is no way to do that, because timezones are purely a matter
under the jurisdiction of national or in some cases even provincial
governments, and they are free to do any damn thing they want to them.

Various governments have repeatedly made sure this fact is not
overlooked.


>A) "International Date Line", which is probably not standardized

[...]

It is not.

In only exists as a the result of local governments deciding what
timezones to use.

Some Pacific Island nation "jumped" timezones for Y2K in order
to be the first country to "arrive in the new millenia.

The "intenational date line" is simply where you, in broad daylight,
have a country with one date on one side and another country with
a different date on the other side.


>B) The "International Meridian Conference of 1884" contains significant 

>discussion of the idea "That these standard meridians should continue to 

>be designated as even multiples of fifteen degrees from Greenwich", but 

>there appears to be no explicit resolution of vote on the topic.


And there were none subsequently.  Strict 15 degree meridians would
be very impractical, unless national borders were aligned with them.

Despite significant attempts at map-redrawing in the first half of
the 19-hundredes, timezones were never a reason for it.

UTC was standardized so that telephone, telegraph and radio operators
would not have to keep track of local politics all over the world in
order to operate.

In practice, the "olsen" database is a post-facto recording of
political whims with respect to timezones.


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